


A Dawn At Dusk

by seki



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 20:59:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12825972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seki/pseuds/seki
Summary: If it's not on purpose, it shouldn't count.





	A Dawn At Dusk

Their first kiss is an accident.

Noctis, fifteen years old, tipsy from the wine he was allowed to drink to celebrate the new Altissian Ambassador's arrival in Insomnia, leans heavily against Ignis's side in the elevator.

"Good night?" Ignis asks, amused. From across the room, Noctis had seemed fine at the dinner; perhaps the walk back to the elevator had allowed the wine to catch up with him.

"She told me I was handsome." Noctis makes a noise that is probably a suppressed burp. "It was embarrassing."

"Ah. Diplomats, eh?"

"I wish you could have been where I was. You're handsome, she'd have fawned all over you instead."

Ignis chuckles. "If you say so." The elevator dings. "Come on, I'll get you back to your room."

"I can walk."

"I'm not entirely sure I believe you."

"I can." Noctis stands up straight, takes a step forwards, and then stumbles a little, reaching out to steady himself on the elevator door. He makes an embarrassed noise, and then looks over his shoulder at Ignis in a suspicious way, as if Ignis is responsible for his inebriation. "Shit."

Ignis moves, lifts Noctis's arm, wraps it over his own shoulder and supports Noctis by the waist. "As I said. Let me help you."

"...fine."

Noctis is silent for the brief walk back, but he's permitting Ignis's support, which is good. Recently it's been hard to tell what Noctis is thinking about Ignis, or whether he even wants Ignis to continue serving as his Chamberlain. He's been withdrawn, distant. It's been… trying, and Ignis has been doing his best to pretend things are just fine.

"Here we go," Ignis says, cheerfully, when they get to Noctis's room. "Safe and sound."

"My hero," Noctis mumbles, and pulls himself out of Ignis's grasp. "I'm good."

Ignis watches for a solid twenty seconds as Noctis tries and fails to connect his hand with the door handle, and intervenes. "...how about I get you safely settled, hm?"

"Ugh."

It's a rare moment in Ignis's recent life, having to help Noctis to his bed, having to kneel to pull off his shoes one by one as Noctis sits unsteadily on the edge of his mattress.

"Ignis?"

"Yes, your highness?"

"C'mere." Noctis pats the bed next to him. "Just for a second."

Ignis pairs the shoes, sets them neatly under Noctis's bedside table. "Of course." He stands, and sits next to Noctis. "Do you need something else?"

"A goodnight kiss?"

Ah. Like one his father would bestow, perhaps. It's so absurd a request that it makes Ignis smile. "Get into bed, then."

He helps Noctis get under the covers, pulls them up, tucks Noctis in properly and folds down the top of the sheet. Noctis regards him with the gravity of a solemn drunk throughout the whole process, and then Ignis leans in and presses a paternal kiss to his brow.

"Goodnight, Noctis."

Noctis frowns, and then beckons Ignis down. "Not like that. Again."

Ignis leans down again, and this time Noctis tips his head up, and their lips brush against one another. Noctis exhales, the sweet scent of the wine hitting Ignis's nostrils at the same time as the realisation of the inappropriateness of this contact. Ignis yanks away, but Noctis is already smiling a sleepy, satisfied smile. "Better."

"...I should go."

"G'night, Specs."

\--

Ignis brings Noctis a breakfast tray, the next morning. Water. Toast, with butter on the side. Aspirin. Porridge. It'll be up to Noctis to see what he can stomach. But Noctis does have school, so he _has_ to get up whether he likes it or not.

Ignis rather assumes he's not going to like it one bit.

"Good morning," he says with assumed brightness. "How do you feel?"

Noctis pulls the cover upwards, or tries to; Ignis's efforts in tucking him in mean that the blanket doesn't move. After a few ineffective tugs, Noctis evidently gives up, and instead wriggles himself down beneath the covers instead.

"Hm." Ignis isn't certain if Noctis is hungover or not; this is consistent with his usual morning behaviour. "Come on. I bought food."

A faint, whining noise is just about discernable.

"Noct, you've school--"

Noctis crawls back upwards, pulls the covers down enough that Ignis can just about see his eyebrows. "I'm not hungry."

"Do you feel unwell?"

Noctis's hair moves in a way that indicates that Noctis is nodding, and then Noctis groans. "Ugh."

"That's the wine catching up to you. I bought painkillers. Up you come." Noctis emerges, slowly, wincing at the dim light that Ignis was very careful with. Ignis sets the tray down, brushes Noctis's hair out of his face. Noctis _does_ look unwell, and Ignis checks his temperature with the back of his hand out of a faint concern that this might be actual illness. "Just the wine, though," he concludes. "Here. Drink up."

Noctis obediently takes the pills, swallows them down with water, and pulls a face at the food on the tray. "Porridge? Ugh. Gross."

"Try the toast. It'll settle your stomach."

"Huh."

Ignis takes the porridge for himself, while Noctis graws on the dry toast. He lets himself watch as he eats; Noctis's hands have become slim and long-boned, his complexion smoother than most teens of his age, his face losing the roundness of childhood. Noctis is going to age in a handsome way, those strong Caelum cheekbones already growing evident.

Until last night, Ignis was firmly still thinking of Noctis as young, childish, but really: when Ignis was fifteen he didn't think of himself as a child. Noctis almost certainly thinks of himself as an adult, and really: by Insomnian law he very nearly is one.

So was that kiss last night a sweet, childlike kiss? Or the kiss of desire, from a growing man who Ignis is _distinctly_ ready to get to know as an adult?

"Uch," Noctis voices, after one and a half pieces of toast. "Can't eat any more."

Ignis sets down his bowl. "Very well. Do you feel better?"

"Actually, yeah, I do." Noctis puts the plate back on the tray, next to the porridge bowl. "...did I say anything embarrassing last night?"

"At the dinner? Not that I've heard."

Noctis visibly relaxes. "Good. I… I don't think I like wine. Last night's all foggy in my head."

"Do you remember anything after we got back here?"

A shake of the head. "Did… did you have to put me to bed?"

"Yes." Ignis considers, decides to make a joke of it. "And then you asked me for a kiss."

Ignis can't remember the last time he's seen Noctis look so horrified. "Shit," Noctis says, and there's something about the fact that he doesn't think Ignis could possibly be joking, that he _immediately_ believes the accusation that makes a little gear shift in Ignis's head. "I… I must have been really out of it, sorry."

"I obliged," Ignis says, on a whim, and stands up. "You don't recall?"

Noctis's eyes are wide and uncertain. "Wait, really? We kissed?"

"Yes." Ignis tips his head. "But if you were intoxicated, never mind. I understand."

He's calculated right, just as he turns his body away, Noctis grasps his wrist. "Don't go."

"It's perfectly alright, Noct, I--"

Noctis _tugs_ , hard, and Ignis follows the movement, lets Noctis pull him down so he's sitting next to Noctis on the bed. "Are you telling me," Noctis says, his voice sounding sharp and angry, "that you kissed me last night and I can't even remember it? My first kiss?"

Oh, dear. "It was only a chaste peck on the lips. I don't think it really counts."

" _Good_."

And then Noctis's mouth is against his again, only this time it's not a fleeting contact, not any sort of accident. Ignis hasn't kissed _often_ before, and he's never been kissed with such desperation. Noctis's mouth opens against his, Noctis's hands grasp at his hair and his collar, and Ignis lets himself be subsumed entirely into the sensations as their lips meet and part and meet again.

Noctis pushes him away, after what seems like a blissful eternity. "That," he says, and he's still trying to look serious, though his eyes give him away, "was a proper first kiss."

"Yes," Ignis says, somewhat breathless. "It was."

"And I'll remember that one."

"As will I." Ignis glances at the clock on the bedside table, and swallows down his disappointment. Time to compose himself. He's Noctis's Chamberlain. There are schedules and routines he can't ignore. "I… should let you get ready for school."

"Really? That's what you're focused on? No, of course, can't have me missing school, what was I thinking." Noctis makes a clucking noise at the back of his throat. "Can I kiss you again later?"

"...it's not really a good habit for us to get into, Noct."

"I'm full of bad habits. One more won't kill me." Noctis's hand tightens on Ignis's wrist. "Please, Specs. Boyfriends?"

It's said so sweetly, so hopefully, that Ignis's heart feels like it skips a beat. Boyfriends? "As if I could say no to you," he says, and lets himself lift a hand to touch Noctis's cheek. "Boyfriends, then."

Noctis moves his face, presses his cheek firmly against Ignis's hand, closes his eyes. He sighs, deeply. "Okay."

"Get to school," Ignis says, softly. "The sooner you go, the sooner you'll come back to me."

"Not true, but alright. I'm going, I'm going."

It's not until Noctis is out of the Citadel that Ignis lets it all catch up with him. He tucks himself away in his tiny office, locks the door, and then rests his head against the desk and closes his eyes. His lips tingle at the memory of the kiss; he can still feel, like an echo, the way Noctis's fingers tugged on his hair, the way his hand felt on Ignis's wrist.

_Boyfriends_.

This must be why Noctis has been so strange lately. Because he wanted _this_ from Ignis and didn't know how to ask for it.

Ignis smiles, and lifts his head up from the desk. Kisses. Boyfriends. All of the promises that come with that, all of the discoveries, all of the _desire_.

Later can't come soon enough.

**Author's Note:**

> (Apparently I'm writing on a theme this week, Brotherhood-era first kisses. :D)


End file.
